This is a two-player game (Mag and I had time to play this before Garth arrived) with each player taking the role of either JFK or Tricky Dick with the obvious goal of winning the election held on the final turn of the game.

The strengths of the game were some fun game play mechanics in an engaging back and forth battle to gain support, a great adherence to the theme (the photo cards that determine which events occur are all based on historical campaign issues) and great components (the playing board is a map of the U.S. with the electoral votes of each state and which candidate is currently winning each state can be determined at a glance).

The weakness was that the cards which enabled players to act had a wide range of power and on any given turn one player could romp while the other had to sit and suffer through it. Mag spent the first half of the game trouncing me with powerful cards while I was stuck with ones that were far less powerful. Our luck switched in the second half of the game and seemed to balance out in the end, but by getting the luck in the second half I was able to make moves that Mag couldn’t effectively fight. Either way it’s no fun to have to take a lengthy in-game drubbing because the cards won’t let you accomplish anything. Bad luck is okay. Prolonged bad luck is no fun. It would take a few more plays to see if our perception of the luck flaw was an anomaly of card distribution or whether it occurs in every playing;

Board Game Geek Ranking: 15th! Given the high ranking, my guess is that we had atypical card distribution in our game.

While not quite at the same level of quality as previous year’s favorite new games, this one was a hit with easy to learn rules and strategies, but with enough variations on potential strategies and enough changes in available options each playing to make every game of this distinct. I have no hesitation recommending this one and it was my favorite of the four new games.

In Vikings, players alternate buying one of 12 pairs of land tile/workers for 6 rounds during the course of which the cost of the pair can change depending on the moves of the players before you. The placement of the tile on each player’s scoring area along with the placement of the purchased worker determine victory points awarded. Tiles and workers must also be protected from Viking ships.

Each purchase selection provides some great options for each player who must also keep his or her eye on the other players’ needs and the rounds go quickly so there is little downtime between players’ turns. Plus, since the preceding players’ selection affect the cost and availability of tiles/workers for your next turn, your attention doesn’t wander during the other players’ turns.

It’s a fun game that looks like it would easily hold up to repeated playings (and it did at least once, because we played it again later in the weekend).

In our first game, Garth won handily by avoiding the high risk/high reward options that lured Mag and I down the path to defeat.

Board Game Geek Ranking: 163. After two plays, I think that’s a bit low, but still not too shabby given the competition (Diplomacy, Hansa, Formula De) ranked around it.

3) Finally, Friday evening closed with a Hero Clix battle in a 3-way 456 point team scenario we agreed upon that addressed the flaws of prior years’ 3-way scenarios both the strict time limit (10 turns) and the objective – be the player holding the most of the 7 victory objective markers –rewarded aggressive play and discouraged waiting in the wings while 2 of the other players slugged it out. Waiting in this one would mean that it would be too late to grab enough victory markers to win.

The scenario turned out to be a lot of fun with Garth taking an early lead courtesy of good tactics, effective use of all 7 characters on his force and the threat of Ultimate Iron Man, his heavy hitter. Mag was too conservative with his force, led by the duo figure of Batman and Robin and his second biggest bruiser, Atlas, got hammered early on by a psychic blast from my heavy hitter, M.O.D.O.K., leaving Mag weakened. Mag was also hampered by having two characters, Ghost Rider and Dove, who needed to take damage to become more effective. In a 10-turn game, one team shouldn’t have had 2 such characters. That was my fault. I made 6 teams for the 3 players to choose from and I missed that the team Mag ended up selecting had those two dial types on it.

Still, like almost all Hero Clix games we have played, it was a blast to play. I particularly enjoyed giving M.O.D.O.K. dialog each time he got into action. My initial impression of Hero Clix as a game that is flawed but more than enough fun to make up for the flaws remains my judgment of this game.

Our scenario went down to the wire, with an atypical tactical blunder by Garth (blame the firewater that Mag had obtained) deciding the day as M.O.D.O.K. and the M.O.D.O.K.ites wound up with 3 of the victory objectives compared to 2 each for the other forces although if a couple of die rolls had gone the other way on the last turn, things would have ended differently.

Board Game Geek Ranking: 1092. A bit harsh. If you like super-heroes and/or miniatures, you’ll love it. If not, you’ll recoil in horror. Just to prove the comparison is one of apples to oranges, the game right above it in the ranking is the ultra-complex Advanced Third Reich and 14 notches above is Rat-A-Tat, a card game my kids played nearly every day when they were in the lower grades of elementary school.

4) Saturday morning started with Caylus, a game that debuted at last year’s get together. This remains my current favorite game with plenty of room for different strategies and decisions that can be readily adjusted on the fly. A game that rewards flexible strategy and requires attention to be paid to opponents' moves. Also, the finish is typically close as was the case here with everyone finishing within 10 points of each other.

5) At this point, we busted out Mag’s Christmas present to me, the incredibly cool looking Fin Fang Foom! It’s not just a Hero Clix piece, it’s a decoration! (N.B., your otherwise understanding spouse or significant other may disagree on the decoration issue).

This gives Mag victory two years in a row for best Christmas present given. In case you were wondering, I did give him a copy of Spores (note Treadmiller Ironicus' recent comment suggesting that this story was originally written for Nova). Also the Marvel Super-Heroes board game, but we didn’t get a chance to play it (the rules were a lot denser than anticipated).

Garth & Mag assembled a team of 1,200 points of heavy hitters and threw them against old Finny. It was fun, but I must say that the special terrain dial on Fin Fang (he can create, destroy and move terrain) grew tedious to implement after a while. The game was an exciting back and forth until Fin Fang got to a click on his last dial that gave him a defense that required the remaining heroes to roll an 11 or 12 to hit. Since Fin Fang can’t attack back until someone damages him, we spent a good 20 minutes with Garth and Mag trying to move into position to roll 11s and 12s before we decided to put the scenario out of its misery. It was fun, but I’m not sure that the terrain dial (which only comes in to play when the 1,200 point version of Fin Fang is used) is playable. If we did this again, I think we’d do away with that dial;

This was a good tense game and one which saw all three of us employing different strategies. The basic strategy involves traveling over the land (the playing board) and using cards to lay claim to resources on each tile. When a tile is completed, different types of rewards are doled out depending on the rewards available from that tile and which player staked the biggest claim. Extra levels of strategy are added by making completing a tile pay off even more when there are already completed tiles adjacent. A large part of the tension is knowing that, except in the rare cases where you are the sole stakeholder on a tile, that finishing off a tile means rewards for you, but also for competitors.

However, if you don’t finish off a tile where you have resources, you take the risk that other players won’t finish it off. Spread too thin, a player could run out of the cubes necessary to stake a claim anywhere. Good decision-making drama.

Victory is achieved by converting enough prizes into citadels to be the player with the most citadels when all have been purchased. I snuck into victory when Mag converted a tile that also rewarded me, pushing me over the top to purchase the final and deciding citadel, with the final score 5 to 4 to 4. It doesn’t get any closer.

Board Game Geek Ranking: 81. Higher than I thought it would turn out, but I won’t gainsay its ranking. A fun and dramatic game.

7) Next up was another game of Vikings, this time using the supplementary advanced play materials (included in the “basic” game box), which enhanced a game that was already a strong one.

This game provided one of the more humorous moments of the weekend. Garth and I apparently tied and after going through all of the tiebreakers, it looked like he won by virtue of having one unused coin left over. Garth then left the room to pee and when Mag and I were cleaning up we realized we forgot to score one of the new advanced rule tiles which gave me the victory. Lesson learned by Garth: when you win by the second tie-breaker, clean up the board very quickly before going to pee.

8) For our next game, we broke out an old one, Niagara, because we had the new expansion. Before using the expansion we decided to play a game with the basic rules first just to remind Garth and Mag of the rules and strategies (I play this game a lot with the kids – it’s a fantastic family game – fun, great components, kids can compete against adults and it plays quickly). In fact, if you’re looking for family game recommendations, I highly recommend this and Hey! That’s My Fish.

After a quick basic game, we played Niagara again with the expansion, Spirits of Niagara which added a number of levels of challenge. The basic level would not hold up well for regular gamers after a number of playings – not enough variety in potential events. The expansion pack takes care of that problem adding a whirlpool, canoes that can hold 2 gems, and different movement options. And the game length remains a quick 20 to 30 minutes.

9) Finally, the weekend closed with another new to us game, Arkham Horror.

Arkham Horror is a cooperative game, with each player taking the part of an investigator in the town of Arkham trying to work fast to defeat a Lovecraftian beast. We have nothing but praise for the game play which was fun and challenging, but the rules left a lot to be desired. Dense reading with no easy reference to look something up in the middle of play, which made the game take about five hours to finish when ordinary game time is to 2 to 4 hours.

For the record, we failed to prevent our beast, Hastur, from rising (we spent the first few turns wandering inefficiently before a few turns of game experience suggested more optimal moves), but we got extraordinarily lucky and defeated him in combat after he arose. Hastur, who we drew randomly, seems hard to stop from coming to Earth, but the easiest of all the beasts to defeat in combat. Mag really liked this game. I enjoyed it, but the 2 to 4 hour game play time is a bit of a bummer to me. I’ve apparently been spoiled by the quicker play time of the modern day Eurogame.

Board Game Geek Rating: 70. I wouldn’t rank it that high. I consider this a game that would be perfect for solitaire play, but if I had a number of other live opponents around, there are a lot of other games I’d suggest first.

And that's it for the gaming weekend report. Time to get back to some comic book entries.